Enemy combatants often use explosive devices such as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to cause damage, injury, and death. Landmines, which are one type of an IED, pose an extreme threat to military and law enforcement personnel and are widely used in warfare. There are two types of landmines—anti-tank (AT) and anti-personnel (AP). AT landmines are designed to immobilize or destroy vehicles and their occupants. An AT landmine produces a mobility kill (M-Kill) or a catastrophic kill (K-Kill). An M-Kill destroys one or more of the vehicle's vital drive components (for example, breaks a track on a tank) and immobilizes the target, but does not always destroy the weapon system and/or the crew (i.e., they may continue to function). In a K-Kill, the weapon system and/or the crew is destroyed. AP landmines can kill or incapacitate their victims. The AP landmines commit medical resources, degrade unit morale, and damage non-armored vehicles. Some types of AP landmines may even break or damage the track on armored vehicles.
Protection of vehicles and personnel against landmine threats is an important issue in the area of defense research. Accordingly, personnel are trained to deal with landmine-like explosions. During training, military and law enforcement personnel use IED simulators that help personnel identify landmines and react to their effects in real-time simulations. Landmine simulators should provide the power of an explosion—realistic sound with visual impact—a live training scenario without the likelihood of injury.